pet connection

This blog has such a long history — in Internet terms, anyway — and a distinct personality as a place where people take on the hard subjects, dismantle and re-examine “conventional wisdom,” debate vigorously and (I hope) learn things that may inform their future decisions and opinions.

We also do silly, heartwarming and just plain cool pet stuff, because we all need this from time to time.

Christie and I started this blog, before I became business partners with Dr. Becker, before she started consulting for Maddie’s Fund and long before we brought new bloggers and an advisory team on board. During the pet-food recall in 2007, we worked 24/7 (me on the day shift, Christie on the night shift) for about six weeks trying to report what had happened (overseas crooks misrepresenting ingredients), how many thousands of pets were killed or sickened (tens of thousands in all) and what could be done to prevent a recurrence (alas, the food system for pets and people continues to be a grave threat to our health).

In time, we brought in more bloggers, and we’re still adding them now. Our advisory team is about to jump by another half-dozen top veterinarians and one well-known pet-care expert, and we still have our eyes on a couple more people to join us. None of our bloggers or advisory team members are full-time: They’re working veterinarians, dog-trainers and reporters specializing in pet care.

Earlier this year, we here at PetConnection talked about how we can make our entire website more helpful to visitors. We’ve always had a free searchable archive of articles, a free e-mail newsletter and, of course, this blog that a lot of people enjoy following. After much discussion, we decided to break out two new sections for the website, one that’s splitting off from this blog (and absorbing the content from our now-defunct DogCars.com website) and another that’s completely new, a section set aside just for the video podcasts.

The blog  for reviews of products, book and vehicles is already live, although I’m still adding the content from DogCars.com to it, as well as older product reviews moving from this blog to the new one. We’ll “tease” to new reviews on this blog, but the entire review will be in the new section. Our Ericka Basile will continue to coordinate our product reviews, and starting Jan. 1, our Phyllis DeGioia will coordinate book reviews. I will coordinate the DogCars reviews, and will write them along with Kim Campbell Thornton, who picked them up when I flat-out got tired of driving a new car every week. (Yes, it happens, but in my case it took three years.) Click on “Product Reviews” in the top navigation to get to that new section. (For more on our product-review policies, click here.)

Within a couple of weeks or so, we’ll have a “Videos” tab in the navigation bar, and that new section will also be live. Relatively inexpensive HD videocams are pretty common these days, and so, too, is basic video-editing software. In addition to a monthly video from Dr. Becker, we’ll be featuring video reports from conferences, and video features from other members of our PetConnection team.

Finally, we’ll be beefing up our existing online store in the weeks to come to include 99 cent e-books as well as all the books authored by our advisory team and bloggers — which is a lot of books, as in dozens and dozens. We’re also going to play with some other items in the store, but that’s still not far enough along to have firm details. More information when I have it.

Hope you enjoy the additions!

Share & Enjoy

Facebook	Twitter	Google Buzz	Digg
Technorati	StumbleUpon	Delicious	Email

We’ll be back Friday.
.

.
Image by Richard Schmidt

Share & Enjoy

Facebook	Twitter	Google Buzz	Digg
Technorati	StumbleUpon	Delicious	Email

Among the many idiosyncrasies known and somewhat tolerated by my friends and family, this one is the considered to be the most notable:

I don’t do Christmas. At all.

No gifts out, no gifts in. No cards, no parties, no festive decor, no holiday baking (no holiday weight gain!), no “happy holidays,” no … nothing. I flat-out ignore it, because I think the whole thing got out of hand decades ago and became a some freaky celebration that’s more to do with buying a bunch of crap nobody needs than anything else. So … I opt out, and have done so for going on 20 years now.  Felt right from the moment I did so and I haven’t regretted it since.

But of course, I am highly unusual in my own non-holiday traditions. Most  of you will opt in, some of you because you enjoy the big ta-da and others because you have children to fuss over or families who are not as understanding as mine about strange and vaguely arty types like me.

How do you do it?

No, really, I want to know. Why? Because I have to write about it for an assignment, of course.

How do you deal with the visiting relative who’s allergic to cats and thinks that means you need to “do something” about yours before she comes over to dinner?

How do you deal with the visiting adult child who’s bringing home an ill-mannered, unhouse-trained dog she got even though you told her getting a dog while in college was a really crappy idea?

How do you deal with an invitation to a perfect place for taking your well-mannered, obedient dog (a house rental at Sea Ranch that takes dogs, not that I’m being precise or citing a personal example) only to find out that your brother’s sister-in-law’s politically annoying husband is also mildly allergic to animals, something that can be dealt with if he takes a mild antihistamine but he won’t because he has some issue with his body being a temple or some such and by the way, he’s also intolerant of wheat gluten and is a preachy vegan pinhead besides.

OK, maybe that last one was in fact precise AND personal, and let me say that in fact I was not invited because my brother knew that my response to him choosing the sister-in-law’s husband over his sister’s well-mannered dog would have been not only “no,” but “eff no.”

But I digress …

What do you do about these pet-people holiday conflicts? The child who’s afraid of dogs? The dog who’s afraid of children? The ill-mannered canine houseguest? The well-mannered canine houseguest who’s not welcome? While many of these conflicts involve dogs, since dogs are more likely to travel with their owners, I’d heard of many holiday conflicts over the years, including getting a frantic call from a reader whose cousin was coming to dinner with … her macaw. (It turned out fine.)

So … give me your scenarios, your stories, your problems and your solutions. Remember that few people are reasonable or pet-tolerant as the readers of this blog, and indeed few people have pets as no-doubt well-mannered as the readers of this blog. Let’s talk about the rest of the world.

Help a girl out here. Because while I don’t play the holiday game, that doesn’t mean I’m not occasionally summoned in to play referee for the rest of you.

Share & Enjoy

Facebook	Twitter	Google Buzz	Digg
Technorati	StumbleUpon	Delicious	Email

Most of our bloggers are on the road, and those who aren’t (like me) are working on the paying gigs.

Mostly: Dr. Becker and I are busy reviewing the edited manuscript for “Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual” so it can make its spring pub date.

I’m also doing laundry, a lot of laundry, making some cold-weather food for the week ahead and paying bills.

Yes, my life is JUST that exciting!

I’ll be back Monday with the newswrap, since David’s one of those on the road. See you then!

Share & Enjoy

Facebook	Twitter	Google Buzz	Digg
Technorati	StumbleUpon	Delicious	Email